After nearly 30 years as a tapestry weaver I have spent far more hours in front of a loom than with needle and canvas, but for as long as I can remember,the marriage and yarn and image has been a given,and that certainty began with with needlepoint.

My grandmother, unless she was driving somewhere very fast in her pink Volkswagen bug or cooking something with lots of butter, always had a piece of stitching (needlepoint or crewel or sometimes knitting), in her hands.So did (and do) at least two of her five daughters (my aunts, not my mother who was otherwise occupied getting a masters degree, learning to program computers back and teaching mathematics). Grandma's stitching was an endlessly compelling and yet unknowable backdrop to many of my youthful imaginings.

Once, in my youthful innocence, I asked her why she stitched other people's drawings instead of making up her own. Apparently that was a ridiculous question, but I was left with a longing to give form to my own ideas--if only I could figure out how.

My Mother and Aunts now have most of Grandma's work (rugs, bags and more cushions than I can possibly imagine), but I've never needed the physical manifestation of her stitching to know that, should I ever need it, permission to draw with yarn and needle was already granted.

For all the goodness that has come from tapestry and knitting however, stitching on canvas has remained in the background--a secret hobby the mere mention of which causes some tapestry weavers to draw back in horror if the two words appear in the same sentence. "Needlepoint is NOT Tapestry!!!!!" Of course it is not. But neither is it a lesser medium. (It probably has not escaped your notice that my needlework and tapestries look an awful lot alike....)

Truth to tell, for most of my tapestry life, other than mending and sewing the occasional garment, there hasn't been time for needlepoint.In the midst of constant weaving, knitting, teaching, spinning, dyeing, drawing, hanging out with my husband and son and doing the dishes, the last thing I needed was another thing.Indeed, I don't recall quite why I picked up needle and canvas 10 or 11 years ago,though I know a conversation with Sarah Haskell about embracing the grid of warp and weft (she loved it, I spent my weaving life trying to defy it), had something to do with it, as did learning about Knotted Pile from Sara Lamb.

I do remember that the desire was fierce and immediate, and that the moment I found a piece of blank canvas I snatched every second to stitch, enthralled by the sound of the yarn swishing through holes, riveted by the the glow of the stitches -- so different from tapestry even though I was using the same yarn. ​

Stitching, sewing, storytelling,dyeing, drawing, dreaming, wild and magical and playful freedom to do as I pleased --I'd never seen or done anything quite like it before.When not tied up in knots about where the story was goingor how best to tell it once I knew,I was entirely at my ease.

Needlepoint Comics provided a kind of elbow room I was not, at the time, getting with tapestry, though those familiar with my work may notice that Stripes is connected to the tapestry book Casting Off, picking up where that book ends.

None of this stuff happens in isolation.In fact, most of the work on these comics took place as I was writing the novel that would become the Rough Copy series of tapestries -- sequential narrative finding its way into tapestry in a different form.When I began to actually weave those 13 pieces though, I had neither time nor creative energy for anything else -- and certainly not something as demanding and compelling as needlepoint.

But now I'm back.And it was those tapestries that are responsible -- the addiction to words that was not entirely (even remotely) cured by weaving them,led to unscripted writing at the loom (no cartoon),which generated an idea that I might be able to write longer sentences on a backstrap loom,and sucked me down the rabbit hole I'm currently in (discussed in myriad previous blog posts),and then the lightbulb moment (lights are good down in rabbit holes),that I have been weaving the linen grid I longed for back when I was making those giant comics panels above, but couldn't figure out how to do without a floor loom. Sometimes I am so dense.

Now, alas, I've gone on and on, ​the work is callingand I have not addressed the technical aspects of the thing-- yarn, sett, materials etc--which is what I meant to talk about.Ah well.Maybe next time.​I'll know more by then anyway.

See ya!

Lynn

9/22/2016 04:43:49 pm

Why does it take so long to figure things out, even obvious things?

Carrie

9/22/2016 06:18:01 pm

Your work is utterly charming. I hope you live a really long time.

Margaret Stone

9/23/2016 05:58:08 pm

As always, Sarah, a delightful post. Love the photo of you in '72! As you outline life has so many aspects to it that some things stay in the back of the mind for years before finally making their way out. I am still waiting for some of mine to surface! Such a pleasure to share your life and work.

Sarah, your blog delighted me. Your photos are lovely. I am a spinner for years but have just gotten my first loom (bead...) I will keep reading and one day I will understand what you are saying!! I am very impressed by folk who can knit, crochet, etc. But you also cracked me up. Thank you for the little island of wackyness in my mundane day.

Did you ever get an answer from your grandmother about why she stitched other people's drawings instead of making up her own? I'd like to do a little bit of both because sometimes I like the painted/stamped canvases, but have some ideas for some pieces I would like to do.

Hi Jessica. Alas, I don't remember Grandma's specific words on the subject, but certainly got the sense that she thought it a peculiar question as she'd never thought of doing such a thing -- indeed, that she chose a particular canvas because she liked it already and wanted to stitch THAT image with THOSE colors.

Thank you for your kind words about my compositions! It is a fun idea to consider painting canvases. I wonder what kind of paint is used? And, indeed, how tone would calculate how much yarn would be needed....

As for canvas -- I bounce back and forth between 10 and 12 mesh monocanvas. When I buy it, I usually get brown, and the stuff I've woven so far is mostly some shade of natural linen. The size I choose depends on the yarn I want to use and the size of the design (more specificity with 12, more restful stitching with 10)

When I was first starting I tried Penelope Canvas, but somehow didn't find it nearly as pleasurable. And I don't want to have to weave it!

I'd love to see what you do, starting with, then modifying, a commercial canvas. Sounds fun!

Some of the canvases I've seen are gorgeous... I like some of the old needlepoint kits that I've seen, even Sunset & Jiffy.. if your grandma wasn't into drawing, that could be why, and is probably why coloring books are so popular these days!

I have the same questions that you have about how much yarn.. as far as painting, artist acrylic (Golden, Liquitex, Graham, Novacolor, etc) is a possibility and you may even like some of the craft paints... something to play with... I've heard that painting canvases is hard on brushes, so keep that in mind. Maybe at the outset, try geometric pieces & take some notes on how much yarn it takes to do each shape. I may try this myself!

A few years ago, I did a small (4x4" ish?) piece that was the center of one of Frank Stella's paintings, Hyena Stomp, but was mostly experimenting with how to paint on needlepoint canvas, and learning where I should have put the paint.

Rittenhouse needlepoint has a page that explains the different ways to paint a canvas here:

<http://paintingneedlepoint.com/cheappaintingideas.php>

The "just paint it method" leaves it up to the stitcher where to put a color...then there's "stitch painting" key areas & "just paint" the rest.. then there's stitch painting, where each stitch is painted where the yarn/thread is supposed to go & then there's the charted counted method.

So far, I've been happy with the "just paint it" methods on the canvases I've bought (mostly Sunset/Jiffy/Creative Circle, etc... I felt that my painting technique was "ehhh... ummm"... but with everything, it can improve..and that was a while ago!

If you're on Facebook, check out the needlepoint groups and search for painting in there.

Re: different types of canvases, I thought I would like penelope so that I could switch between stitching each hole & stitching the other way... not sure because it's hard to see & I keep missing.the bigger part of the hole... I have a few small canvases that I found that are penelope from a lady in Greece: Syvester, Tweety & Bugs Bunny... I'll stitch them when I'm a little more confident with my technique! :)

As far as mesh size, I have some 12 mesh blank & 14 mesh blank... maybe some 16 (eek, my eyes!) and I think I prefer the bigger stuff...

What would you use to weave canvas & would you stiffen it?

I could go on and on about needlepoint... :)

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​Sarah C Swett tells storieswith​ and about hand spun yarn.

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